Tag Archives: ventricosa

Winter greetings all! I hope this finds you all well and that this winter season has been good to you and the plants. Now that it is winter and the plants are asleep, activity in The Asylum is ramping up. This winter season is a busy one indeed. I’ve been doing some cleaning, trimming, moving plants about, and even some sorting of seeds (Yeeessss, I know – many of you asked about seeds. And divisions. So stay tuned for that update…)

Here’s a small selection of photos from around the garden. First shot below is a doozy. What a complete mess this is. Yeah, I gots my trimming work cut out for me. Most plants have long since put away the glory of the season past. They are once again clothed in the sleep of crispy crunchy pitchers. Soon enough, this place will be bursting full of life again…

Quick clip: Slicing through Sarracenia.
Sorry for the quality. Filmed in slow motion (120 FPS) on the mobile device.

Sarracenia oreophila section – all squared away.

Dionaea, Pinguicula, and Drosera (Drosera out of shot in background) cleaned and organized.

Dormancy: Sarracenia oreophila

Sarracenia alata – maroon throatA few pitchers still hanging on.

Seedling: Sarracenia leucophylla x “Eva” pitcher still vibrant.

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And while the Sarracenias sleep, the Nepenthes crew bask in these cooler temperatures. Watching the Nepenthes and tropicals grow during the winter helps break up the monotony of all the lifeless pitchers. I like them ‘cuz you know, I always have to be growing… *something.*

Nepenthes ventricosa x tiveyi

Nepenthes thorelii x aristolochioides

Nepenthes (eymae x (stenophylla x lowii)) x trusmadiensis

And finally – back home is the grow tank. I turned an unused 50 gallon tank into a refuge for some Heliamphora, Cephalotus, Nepenthes, a Pinguicula and Drosera. There’s a variegated vanilla orchid growing in the corner and a mounted staghorn fern (Platycerium coronatum) that was not taking too well to the cooler temps in the greenhouse. Be looking for updates from the grow tank in the future.

Eh… so my camera is currently in the shop getting some repairs. I should have it back sometime soon, just in time to capture more photos of… dead foliage. Heh Heh! Still, that won’t stop me from taking beloved plant photos. (You can always find me and more plant madness on Instagram too – @rco911!) Anyway, enjoy a few photos snapped by the mobile device. Cheers!

Hi all! I am still alive. Geez, has it really been over a month since I’ve posted anything up on here? Yeah, it has been a busy month so far – and now that dormancy is fast approaching, things in The Asylum will get even busier! Divisions, repotting, cleaning, and reorganizing are all things that I hope will be done while the plants are asleep. (By the way, you can always catch me on the Instagram – @rco911 – in between blog posts.)

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Before the photo updates, just a couple things worth mentioning…

– A core member of BAPP and dear friend… moved to Oregon. I’m currently babysitting Derek’s plants. For the time being, his plants and my plants are getting along and playing nicely.

– Mike Wang and I went on a lil’ Darlingtonia excursion earlier this month. Photos and video to be featured in a future post. You can read about *one* of the sites we visited in Mike’s post on the Sarracenia forums. Stay tuned for a future Darlingtonia update!

– Not plant related, but SF GIANTS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES! AGAIN! YEAHHHHH!

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So anyyywayyyyyy… at this point in time, much of the greenhouse looks like this. Fugly.

Dormancy. Time to bust out that katana blade and slice through this madness soon.

BUT! There are still a few gems in that mess.

Although *most* of the Sarracenia pitchers are fading, things are still looking OK in the mini-greenhouse. This is a small 6 x 8 greenhouse with it’s own micro climate. Read more here. It’s more humid than the main house, and the temperatures seem to be a bit more stable. It does not get so hot in there during the day and (I am hoping) it does not get too cold in there during the winter. I can line this with bubble wrap and stick a small heater in there if need be during winter. I would not want to find myself stuck in the same cataclysmic-cold-snap situation like last year. See link above. Anyway, some of Derek’s plants have moved in here. So far, so good.

In the realms of Sarracenia – couple things still looking decent in the wreckage of burnt out foliage. I haven’t had a chance to photograph some of the leuco/leuco hybrids that are still OK but on their way out. Hope to provide an update on that later.

Sarracenia moorei “Orange Glow” x ‘Adrian Slack’ – one of my crosses from a few years ago. Still a young plant that I finally put in it’s own pot! Let’s see what that extra root space will do next season.

Sarracenia “Saurus” – Fall pitchers. Cross by Phil Fauilsi. The Spring pitchers were even more massive.

A few months ago, we had a relatively nasty cold snap (hey, cold for us at least) that the Nepenthes didn’t appreciate very much. I think it got down to the mid 30’s or something. I had the Nepenthes growing out in the unheated greenhouse with no protection like this.

With lack of a better plan, I moved them to the corner of the greenhouse and just threw overwintering film on them. For the past few months, there they stayed. I didn’t pay much attention to them as they were kind of depressing to look at. Crispy brown all over the place. Not good. Dahlia or I would water them every now and then by lifting up the overwintering film and just aimlessly hosing everything down. I had my fingers crossed hoping I would get something that would survive. And survive they did!

I wanted to do a better job this year. If I left that monster dome up, the plants would of had better protection. But nooooo, I was ambitious and brought that house down in December (DECEMBER!) of all months. Geez. Hey, that dome took up 3 tables worth of space! I didn’t need anything that big. So my plan for this year was to provide them better shelter that didn’t take up a footprint of 20′ x 15′. That’s too much and I need that space for Sarracenia.

So, I picked up a sweet 6 x 8 greenhouse find on Craigslist and that would be the new Nepenthes house. (Thanks Steve!) This is a great size. It doesn’t take up a lot of room, and come winter I can insulate the small greenhouse with greenhouse bubble wrap, or something of that nature. This should keep it a little warmer and offer a little more protection from the cold. I had my eldest son Josiah help me put the greenhouse together. It reminded me of when I put my first greenhouse together with my grandfather when I was about Josiah’s age.

This last week I spent some time cleaning the Nepenthes up and moving them into their new home. The photo below is very depressing. I had thought this plant was a goner for sure! If you look closely, a few months under the overwinter film proved helpful. There’s a couple basal shoots in there!! Yeah!!

The Nepenthes took a beating from the cold a few months back…

I know, that’s just nasty up there. Fortunately after trimming all the dead crap off, I found signs of life! YEAH!

The Nepenthes lives! Yes. Yesss… YEAASS!!

I did have a lot of losses though and I’m still mourning those plants. As my friend Kinjie told me regarding these plants, “Hey, you gotta learn somehow!” Yes, true, but losing plants is a sucky way to learn! To the left is a Nepenthes densiflora x truncata. You can see some of the cold damage that this baby took. The center of the plant is still alive and there are new growpoints forming where the cold turned the main growpoint into mush. In any event, I’m so very glad that many of the plants survived. Some of the surprises that I found under that overwinter film provided some great comfort, hope, and solace.

Ever since this article on glowing carnivorous plants was written, I’ve always wanted to try photographing the plants under UV light. I’ve tried various types of black lights, but most of those lights didn’t really produce that visible glowing reaction that I was looking for in the plants. Turns out I needed a short wave UV light. Scroll down a bit in this wiki to see what I’m talking about when I talk UV wavelength in nanometers, or “nm” for short.

At first I tried out a black light LED flashlight, as well as a common fluorescent black lights bulb; both of which I found at my local hardware store. Those mostly bathed the plant in this purple ambient light and did not create the visible glow I was looking for. I would guess that those lights were emitting in the 380-390 nm range. Next I bought a light off eBay that said it was 365 nm. Ehhh… that was a little better than the previous lights that I had, but didn’t quite have that glowing “oomph.” After doing more research and digging, I ran across this post on the International Carnivorous Plant Society forum and from there I started looking for a 254 nm UV lamp of sorts. I found one that was relatively inexpensive in comparison to some of the other laboratory grade UV lights out there. ($50 vs. $300+ lights.)

I took two photos of each of the photographed plants below. One under regular light and the other under 254 nm UV light, both of which you can see below. Mouse over the photographs below to see the photo in regular light. And yes, I also noticed that some Nepenthes were “brighter” than the others under this light. (By the way, check out my Vine video. The Vine link might not work in Firefox, but you can view in Chrome and IE browsers…)

I haven’t had much time at night to work with the Sarracenia just yet, but from what I’ve noticed there hasn’t been much fluorescence that is visible to the human eye with this particular lamp that I have. I’ll try to get some photos next time with the Sarracenia.

Photos below are 20 – 25 second exposures of the plants under the 254nm uv light. Mouse over the images to see the plant in regular light.

Nepenthes “Benevolence”

Nepenthes ventricosa x tiveyi

Nepenthes “Song of Melancholy”

Nepenthes “Enigma”

Nepenthes “Troth”

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Special thanks to Paul Barden and Kinjie Coe for being my “mentors” in Nepenthes growing! Thank you both so much for your patience and generosity … y’all got me HOOKED!

Home sweet home! I recently returned from a family vacation up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. It’s nice to be back, but I really do miss it up there. I got the chance to visit Karen Oudean and Jerry Addington and meet up with a couple other talented growers. (Kinjie and Phaedra – great to meet you! Brie – I’m sorry we missed you!) And yes, I’ll be featuring photos from that visit in an upcoming post, so stay tuned!

For now, here’s a few snapshots from within The Asylum. Great to be home.

I returned home packing my suitcase with a few plants from Jerry. (Thanks again, Jerry!) The plants have made the trip back safe and sound and have been potted up. Here’s a couple of the plants that made it back with me.

The Nepenthes are adjusting the the higher light levels quite nicely on this end. I moved the Nepenthes not too long ago, and since then I’m seeing a lot of new growth on foliage, and more pitchers will soon follow. With some tinkering and moving plants about, I’m getting the hang of growing Nepenthes in this greenhouse. For now, here are a some photos of recent pitchers.

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Blog warning: I am not a plant expert. No freekin' way. I just love growing these plants and sharing what may or may not work for me. I consider myself a student - always learning, and always growing, sharing what I learn along the way!

The plant material I distribute is propagated by me. I have not, and do not collect field specimens for propagation, for sale, or for any other purpose. I do not sell plants or seeds that have been field collected by me or my contacts to fill plant orders.